Latest / In the Valley of Giants / Truth From the World's Most Isolated City | Rabbi Dovid Freilich | ITVOG Ep. 15

Transcript

Truth From the World's Most Isolated City | Rabbi Dovid Freilich | ITVOG Ep. 15 · In the Valley of Giants

• 0:00
  Since the 7th of October, you know, two 2023, that's when
• 0:04
  really anti-Semitism started festering here.
• 0:06
  And and the reason for that, the reason there was anti-Semitism
• 0:11
  before, but on a very minor scale, you know, an anti-Semitic
• 0:14
  incident here and there, but very minor.
• 0:16
  Since the 7th of October 2023, there has been Islamic hate
• 0:25
  preachers here who have stirred up, stirred up the Islamic
• 0:30
  community. And as a result, they've had
• 0:32
  these demonstrations against Israel.
• 0:34
  And by the way, I, I think this was all planned because as soon
• 0:37
  as the 7th of October occurred, the day after, before Israel
• 0:41
  even went in to defend itself in Gaza, there was already a, a
• 0:46
  groundswell here, huge demonstrations in all states,
• 0:50
  huge demonstrations. And, and it wasn't just against
• 0:54
  Israel, it was actually against Jews.
• 1:03
  You know, it's fun because I asked him for a bio of you to
• 1:07
  introduce you and he sends me this beautiful, I don't know, 10
• 1:11
  paragraph, you know, explanation of you.
• 1:14
  I said it's great but I need smaller.
• 1:16
  So then he sends me a six paragraph one.
• 1:18
  I said no, I need something closer to like 6 lines.
• 1:20
  He sends me a three paragraph one.
• 1:22
  I said No 6 is like, OK, you know, he can see the amount of
• 1:25
  love and respect that he has for well.
• 1:27
  It's a good with a very good grandson, Barack Hashem.
• 1:30
  And I'm I'm happy because he's got wonderful teachers there and
• 1:33
  there's Israel. So thank you.
• 1:34
  Thank you for teaching him. Of course, thank you for sending
• 1:37
  him it. It goes both ways.
• 1:40
  The Lamatiosumi told me that we learned a tremendous amount.
• 1:44
  Well, we've, we've all got to learn, all of us throughout
• 1:47
  life. It's all a learning process.
• 1:49
  Continual learning. Continually learning.
• 1:51
  Right, right. So I just want to introduce you,
• 1:55
  Rabbi. Tell me if I have your your last
• 1:57
  name pronounced correctly Rabbi David Fralich.
• 2:00
  Is it Fralich? Fralich.
• 2:01
  Fralich. Yeah, Fralich.
• 2:02
  Fralich OK, so it was raised in Sydney and educated under
• 2:06
  leading ribonum in Australia, London and Eertsi Srel,
• 2:08
  developing a broad Torah outlook across sea dish, litfish and
• 2:12
  Marin Orthodox traditions. He serves as the ROV of
• 2:16
  Marlborough. The Marlborough show.
• 2:17
  How do you pronounce that? Did I pronounce that right?
• 2:20
  Maroubra, Maroubra. It's a It means big wind.
• 2:23
  It means big wind. It's an it's an Indigenous name.
• 2:26
  Interesting, OK, interesting, OK.
• 2:29
  In Sydney for 15 years before becoming Chief Rabbi
• 2:32
  Westmesrelli for 30 years. And during that time he headed
• 2:35
  the state cautious authority and served as President of the
• 2:37
  Organization of Rabbis of Australia.
• 2:39
  Today, based in Perth, he means actively involved in community
• 2:42
  leadership, interfaith engagement and weekly Tori
• 2:44
  Shuoram. Welcome so much to the show.
• 2:47
  We are so happy to have you here.
• 2:49
  Well, it's an honor to be here. So thank you.
• 2:51
  Thank you for for this conversation today.
• 2:54
  Of course, I appreciate it. So we're very isolated here in
• 2:58
  Perth, so it's good to have other hidden to speak to.
• 3:00
  Well, that's that's one of the things that, you know, I wanted
• 3:02
  to ask about. Look, listen as as someone
• 3:04
  that's you know, has never been to Australia.
• 3:07
  So I really don't get it, which is fine.
• 3:09
  I mean, I don't know exactly how how isolated 1 is, but I was
• 3:13
  told that other than the one restaurant that you have, the
• 3:15
  closest restaurant is a four or five hour flight away.
• 3:18
  Is that true? Correct, correct.
• 3:21
  The closest, the closest ones are probably, well, actually no,
• 3:26
  well, yes, maybe 4 hours because Singapore, not in Australia,
• 3:30
  Singapore is probably the next, the next kosher restaurant that
• 3:35
  we can go to. So that's that way, that's that
• 3:39
  way. But but that way it's Melbourne
• 3:41
  and Sydney. Of course Melbourne comes before
• 3:43
  Sydney. You know, if I was to fly that
• 3:45
  way, Melbourne's first, So, you know, and they have many Russian
• 3:49
  restaurants here. Here, by the way, we now have
• 3:51
  two. We had to have two, not not
• 3:53
  actually restaurants, but we could buy a falafel.
• 3:55
  It's improving a little bit. It's improving a little bit.
• 3:58
  So, you know, I'd love for you to tell me a little bit about
• 4:01
  the origin of the Jewish community in Australia, how far
• 4:04
  back it goes, if if you're aware and a little bit of a
• 4:06
  development. Are you aware?
• 4:09
  I am aware, I'm aware it goes back to the convicts to when the
• 4:13
  First Fleet came from, from England and amongst them,
• 4:18
  amongst them there were a number of units.
• 4:20
  Well, it's a great years today to say you were from the First
• 4:23
  Fleet. Is it really?
• 4:26
  Of these convicts, if you say you've got the years of coming
• 4:29
  from the convicts, you're you're a real Aussie, you're a real
• 4:32
  Australian. Interesting.
• 4:34
  OK. You're really, look, you looked
• 4:35
  up to, OK, so, so there were a few who came out from England
• 4:41
  and you know, the petty crimes they did, you know, stealing a
• 4:43
  loaf of bread because they were hungry for their families,
• 4:46
  etcetera. You know, very petty crimes.
• 4:48
  They were brought out here and they first, they were in Sydney,
• 4:51
  in Sydney. They're only a small, small
• 4:54
  amount. It wasn't a lot, a lot of hidden
• 4:55
  there. But that was the first, the
• 4:58
  First Fleet in 1788 in Perth. By the way, there are also some,
• 5:03
  in fact there are there's basakvuras here where some of
• 5:08
  those Jewish convicts are buried.
• 5:11
  And we have often services just to, to, to remember them.
• 5:16
  So we go back, we go back a few 100 years, so 1788.
• 5:21
  Is there like a special? Is there a special, You say when
• 5:23
  you have services to remember them, You say like a special
• 5:26
  Misha Berra. How?
• 5:27
  How does that happen? Special, special Misha Berra, if
• 5:30
  we go and play special, special because there's no, there's no
• 5:32
  relatives here for them. So very interesting.
• 5:36
  Occasionally the the Jewish Historical Society arranges one
• 5:39
  of these, one of the cavorium. We go, we go and we say, say a
• 5:44
  camel rock on him and we say if you to him just in memory of
• 5:48
  them because as many of them have no relatives left here.
• 5:50
  So we still remember them fast even though they came out, even
• 5:55
  though they came out as convicts.
• 5:56
  But what type of convicts they were, who knows?
• 5:59
  Right, right. You know what, though, as
• 6:02
  because they were Jews, who knows, they might have done
• 6:04
  nothing. You know Geimer really good at
• 6:05
  throwing Jews in jail for all sorts of.
• 6:08
  Interesting. Well, 100%.
• 6:09
  Well, Australia's infamous for that today.
• 6:12
  You know, the Jewish, the Jewish people have have contributed to
• 6:16
  this country in so many ways. In fact, the there was General
• 6:20
  Monash who was the hero in the First World War here in
• 6:24
  Australia, the top general Jewish, Jewish, there's governor
• 6:28
  generals who are Jewish. And the contribution has been
• 6:32
  tremendous. But like this week's Torah
• 6:35
  reading of Shamois, Parois came up who didn't want to know them
• 6:41
  because they didn't know them. They didn't want to know them.
• 6:44
  So unfortunately people forget the Jewish contribution to
• 6:48
  Australia. So the way you mentioned that is
• 6:50
  very true. But you know what, let's let's
• 6:53
  jump into that a little bit. I was going to go in One
• 6:55
  Direction, but let's jump right into the contribution.
• 6:57
  anti-Semitism. Listen, it's, it's a pattern.
• 7:00
  anti-Semitism is often, of course a pattern.
• 7:02
  I do think that anti-Semitism, like with a lot of a lot of anti
• 7:06
  things, whether it's racism, I think it's really all down to
• 7:09
  tribalism. I think people are naturally
• 7:10
  somewhat tribalistic, but I think anti-Semitism has a
• 7:13
  special place in people, the evil part of people's hearts.
• 7:16
  But you know, the pattern of history has been Jews contribute
• 7:20
  a lot to particular society until there's like a certain
• 7:23
  level where, OK, now they're the enemy.
• 7:24
  You got to kick him out and usually, but not always, right.
• 7:27
  You can certainly see this in the Middle Ages a lot that So
• 7:29
  then some king of some other countries like no, we get it.
• 7:32
  Jews are great. Let's invite the Jews in as was
• 7:34
  done, I believe in Poland and in other places, right?
• 7:37
  And then again they kind of raced a certain level of
• 7:38
  prominence and then we got to get rid of them because we're
• 7:41
  amazing and the Jews had do it, etcetera, etcetera.
• 7:43
  So is, is this a new spin that's happening with Australia now?
• 7:46
  Is it really, is it, is it, is it Islamic dogma or is it more
• 7:51
  anti-Semitism because of success?
• 7:54
  Or perhaps it's another reason in your estimation.
• 7:57
  What's your view? No, I don't think it's called
• 7:59
  success, although there could be some who, you know, have a sort
• 8:03
  of jealousy towards the success of the Jewish Jewish people
• 8:06
  here. I mean, that's, I don't think
• 8:09
  that's the major reason. The major reason over the last
• 8:13
  few years has been Eretz's royal.
• 8:17
  They, they see us as, as Israelis being Jewish.
• 8:24
  You know, we're, we're Israelis. And very often by the way,
• 8:28
  people say to me, oh, do you ever go back to your home, to
• 8:31
  your home country? I said spiritually, it's my home
• 8:33
  country, but I, I was born here in Australia.
• 8:37
  So, So what whatever occurs there, whatever occurs, inherits
• 8:41
  this royal we're blamed for not that there's anything to blame
• 8:46
  us for because since since the 7th of October, you know, two
• 8:51
  2023, that's when really anti-Semitism started festering
• 8:55
  here. And, and the reason for that,
• 8:57
  the reason there was anti-Semitism before, but on a
• 9:01
  very minor scale, you know, an anti-Semitic incident here and
• 9:04
  there, but very minor. Since the 7th of October 2023,
• 9:09
  there has been Islamic hate preachers here who have stirred
• 9:15
  up, stirred up the Islamic community.
• 9:19
  And as a result, they've had these demonstrations against
• 9:22
  Israel. And by the way, I think this was
• 9:24
  all planned because as soon as the 7th of October occurred, the
• 9:28
  day after, before Israel even went in to defend itself in
• 9:33
  Gaza, there was already a groundswell here, huge
• 9:38
  demonstrations in all states, huge demonstrations.
• 9:42
  And it wasn't just against Israel, it was actually against
• 9:47
  Jews on the Opera House, which is one of the main locations
• 9:52
  where everybody, of course, when they see Australia, this is
• 9:56
  Opera House. It's one, it's really an icon.
• 9:59
  There was thousands of Islamic members of, of, of in Sydney,
• 10:07
  thousands of them on the streets the day after Where are the
• 10:12
  Jews? Although some people say it was
• 10:14
  even worse what they were saying.
• 10:15
  There's a whole dispute of what they were saying, but there was
• 10:17
  where are the Jews? So unfortunately, what I saw
• 10:22
  happening was they did not want to, for people to concentrate on
• 10:28
  what happened, the horrific events of the 7th of October,
• 10:32
  the the mass murder of of Jews. They immediately started the day
• 10:36
  after to just put that aside and, and made it out.
• 10:41
  They're, they're, they're, they're the poor, the poor
• 10:44
  victims because, you know, we've taken their land, etcetera,
• 10:47
  etcetera. So that really has precipitated
• 10:51
  the anti-Semitism here in the last two years.
• 10:54
  And unfortunately our government has not acted strongly against
• 10:59
  it. And I must say, and this is the
• 11:03
  sad situation, the Prime Minister of this country in his
• 11:08
  university days was seen in demonstrations, pro Palestinian
• 11:13
  demonstrations against Israel, our Prime Minister, who is the
• 11:18
  Prime Minister at the moment. And he did not speak out loudly
• 11:22
  enough and strongly enough when those people on the, on the
• 11:26
  steps of the Opera House in Sydney were screaming out, where
• 11:30
  are the Jews? And some to even say guess the
• 11:32
  Jews, they were saying shocking things.
• 11:35
  And, you know, interesting thing is at that time and from from
• 11:38
  that, it's developed from that because people thought they were
• 11:41
  emboldened because the the government didn't speak out
• 11:44
  against it, didn't really come out strongly against it.
• 11:47
  So the people thought they had the government on their side,
• 11:51
  they they could they could continue this anti-Semitism.
• 11:54
  And we saw Schulz burnt and we saw graffiti, most shocking
• 11:58
  graffiti. We we saw assaults on Jews.
• 12:02
  You know, people were were frightened to take to to go walk
• 12:04
  out with the yarmulkes on. I mean, what's been going on in
• 12:07
  the last two years has been disgraceful.
• 12:10
  But you know what? Today, just today and and I'll
• 12:14
  take it's over. Very, very, very interesting
• 12:19
  since the that terrorist attack, you know, on on the on the first
• 12:26
  night of Hanukkah and Bondi Beach and another icon of
• 12:29
  Australia since that attack. And we know 15 innocent, I call
• 12:35
  them Australians of the Jewish well, actually 14 were
• 12:37
  Australians of the Jewish faith. One one was a a non Jew who who
• 12:41
  who, who was slaughtered that day by terrorists.
• 12:45
  And since that time, Australians have now risen up and said
• 12:50
  what's going on in our country, what is going on in our country?
• 12:54
  And until today, the the Prime Minister did not even look into
• 13:01
  a thorough investigation as to the background of this.
• 13:04
  Now this is, this is the biggest terrorist attack in Australian
• 13:07
  history. And until today, because I've
• 13:11
  got the paper here, there's there's thousands of good
• 13:14
  Australians who have spoken up and said this cannot be
• 13:19
  tolerated in this country. And why is it being tolerated?
• 13:22
  Because, and I'm going to say it, our government here need
• 13:26
  certain seats to stay in power. And those seats in Sydney and
• 13:30
  Western Sydney are Islamic mainly.
• 13:34
  And they've allowed, they've allowed ISIS people into the
• 13:37
  country unchecked, unchecked into the country.
• 13:41
  They've allowed these preachers to continue preaching hate and
• 13:45
  extremism in the streets of of Sydney because it was
• 13:51
  politically expedient for this government to allow that.
• 13:55
  But now the Australian people have woken up to it and there's
• 13:58
  been protests over the last two weeks of really decent
• 14:03
  Australians, good Australians, who have said we're not
• 14:06
  tolerating this. And today the the Prime Minister
• 14:10
  caved in and he's now having a royal Commission, which is a
• 14:14
  thorough investigation today, just today, it was about five
• 14:17
  hours ago. Yeah.
• 14:21
  So, so now there's going to be a thorough investigation.
• 14:24
  I'll, I'll say this to you that I'm a little dubious because
• 14:28
  he's chosen, I mean, if, if indeed it's going to be looked
• 14:32
  into the government as well, but he's the one who's chosen, the
• 14:35
  one to provide over this. So what are the terms of?
• 14:40
  So what are the terms of reference?
• 14:42
  You know, you know, you wouldn't have such a situation of justice
• 14:46
  like this. Of course not.
• 14:48
  Of course not. Of course not.
• 14:50
  Right, so. So so this is.
• 14:52
  But, but, but you know what? But, but, but what you were
• 14:54
  talking about before about Australians rising up, right?
• 14:57
  So are are they? Were they having their own their
• 15:00
  own rallies where Jews were not present, meaning you had
• 15:03
  organizers that were completely independent from the Jewish
• 15:07
  community? Well, these ones who have risen
• 15:12
  up over the last few weeks, I mean, hasn't really been rising
• 15:15
  up by, by demonstrations or anything.
• 15:17
  They've they've been, they've been in the media saying top
• 15:21
  lawyers, top doctors, top sportsmen, every of all walks of
• 15:25
  life coming out and saying you have to make a royal Commission
• 15:29
  here because this is is disastrous for Australia's
• 15:33
  reputation around the world. This is the, this is the biggest
• 15:37
  terrorist attack in history in Australia and you have to do
• 15:40
  something about it. And he was very reticent because
• 15:43
  why was he reticent? In my view, because he's worried
• 15:47
  about being found out that he's, he's now allowing the royal
• 15:50
  Commission. But at the same time he's wait
• 15:55
  the waiters more on his side because who he's chosen to be
• 15:59
  the commissioner is also a lefty, a real lefty.
• 16:03
  So you know, we have to to thank Hashem for the small mercy of of
• 16:07
  of this of this royal Commission.
• 16:10
  At least he's given in to that. But.
• 16:12
  Well what about the Christian, the Christian and the atheist
• 16:15
  community? Did you feel after October 7th
• 16:17
  that the anti-Semitism kind of came from the woodwork, or was
• 16:21
  it really just the Islamic presence in Australia that you
• 16:23
  think was active? Let me tell you, I must say I'm
• 16:30
  from Perth now because I'm, I'm actually actively involved in
• 16:33
  interfaith the, the Christian community.
• 16:38
  First they, they didn't say much when after the October the 7th,
• 16:42
  2023, they didn't say much. I will say to you this that the
• 16:47
  Catholic Archbishop here in Perth, who I'm very friendly
• 16:50
  with, he actually did send a letter of condolence, but a very
• 16:55
  passionate letter of condolence to me after October the, the,
• 16:59
  the second month. But the others didn't speak.
• 17:01
  And why? Because in their congregations
• 17:03
  may have some people who might be pro Palestinian and etcetera,
• 17:08
  etcetera. So they're always frightened to
• 17:09
  speak out. And, and therefore they, they
• 17:11
  said nothing, they were silent. They were silent.
• 17:14
  But since this terrorist attack on the first night of Hanukkah,
• 17:19
  they are speaking out as one and very vehemently and loudly
• 17:25
  because it affects Australia, it affects them as Australians.
• 17:30
  So now they're all talking out, not that they agreed these, the
• 17:34
  church leaders, etcetera, with the Palestinians, etcetera.
• 17:36
  They didn't agree, but they were just frightened to speak out
• 17:39
  because they didn't know who in their congregation they were
• 17:41
  going to offend by speaking out. Which really it shouldn't be the
• 17:45
  way either, because you know, you've got, you've got to as, as
• 17:48
  I always say, the, the, the only one you should be thinking about
• 17:51
  is what's right and Hashem, what Hashem thinks not, not, not what
• 17:56
  the, what, what the congregation thinks.
• 17:59
  Right. It's imperative that that the
• 18:01
  leader of any congregation, whether whatever faith you're
• 18:04
  part of, that you lead you be the shepherd of your flock, not
• 18:08
  the flock be the shepherd of you.
• 18:10
  Well, that's something else. I I've always taught and let me
• 18:13
  say this to you, I've always said vice into it.
• 18:18
  Rabbis now have to be either financially independent or have
• 18:24
  another profession because because apart from the revenant,
• 18:30
  I'm talking about congregational rabbis now, because you've got
• 18:34
  to be unrestricted, unrestricted.
• 18:38
  You don't have to think yourself, well, I'm going to
• 18:40
  lose my job if I come out with this.
• 18:42
  You either come out with it and say what has to be said.
• 18:45
  You can't be worried about what your congregation thinks.
• 18:47
  You only think what what one thinks.
• 18:49
  And that's a cottage borough. That's, that's it, that's it.
• 18:52
  So I often suggest to young rabbis, I'm an older rabbi, but
• 18:57
  I'm still young, but the older I often suggest to young rabbis
• 19:00
  always have something you know, you can turn to because and the
• 19:03
  congregation should know that as well.
• 19:05
  So, so they know they they can't force you to to toe the line
• 19:09
  what they want. My boys said that very.
• 19:11
  Interesting, because what I would, I would say over the past
• 19:15
  year and a half, any successful pulpit Rev that I've spoken to,
• 19:22
  that's the first thing that they say to me.
• 19:24
  That's the first concern that they have.
• 19:25
  You must be financially independent and be able to lead
• 19:29
  your clow without thinking about the consequences.
• 19:31
  But I think that just shows especially someone with your
• 19:34
  seniority and experience. I mean, the bones that I talked
• 19:37
  to, you know, are big ribundum, but they're a bit younger than
• 19:39
  you. But it shows how clear it is
• 19:42
  that the rabbit, it has to be the rabbit.
• 19:44
  It cannot, it cannot be tethered and blocked with anything else.
• 19:48
  And you know, I'm not, I'm not so sure that's that's taught so
• 19:51
  much meaning when I when I got training and I got rabbinical
• 19:56
  training from multiple places, you know, and I'm not saying
• 19:59
  that as as a, as a, as a malicious criticism, but I feel
• 20:02
  like this really is this really is like the the top concern that
• 20:06
  every rough has. It's it's interesting.
• 20:08
  I think that's amazing advice that you're giving, especially
• 20:10
  because, you know, especially if, if you, if you want to lead
• 20:13
  effectively, you, you, you can't be worrying about yourself.
• 20:16
  You have to worry about them. Well, I, I, I, I wrote this a
• 20:20
  number of times in the Jewish press here about rabbis because,
• 20:24
  because what happens is what happens is that you have a
• 20:28
  situation where you've got to talk about some situation.
• 20:31
  That's whether, whether it's, for example, gender dysphoria
• 20:35
  right now, now, now you're talking about that.
• 20:39
  But there could be people in your congregation who, you know
• 20:43
  who, who don't agree that you should be able to go come to
• 20:47
  your rabbi. In fact, there's a legislation
• 20:48
  going on here at the moment in New Way.
• 20:51
  It's already in Melbourne that if you have a problem with your
• 20:55
  gender, you can't, the rabbi can't advise you or your social
• 21:00
  worker can't advise you. You're going to just go along
• 21:03
  with what you want. In other words, if you come to
• 21:06
  the rabbi and say, oh, look, I have this problem, you can't,
• 21:09
  you can't advise them because you can go to jail.
• 21:12
  The rabbi can go to jail. That's what's happened.
• 21:14
  The woke agenda here now. I don't even understand that
• 21:18
  what I mean. You mean someone saying I'm
• 21:19
  having these identity issues and you just.
• 21:22
  You can't even sit down and. Help them work through it.
• 21:24
  You can't. You can't speak to them.
• 21:26
  Correct, correct. That's that's that's that's,
• 21:28
  that's so asinine. So what were they supposed to
• 21:30
  get help from A? 100% because, because according
• 21:34
  to the government, if you have these problems, you should just
• 21:37
  go and whatever you feel. That's preposterous.
• 21:40
  That's ridiculous. That's already in Melbourne.
• 21:43
  People are being jailed because they've given advice.
• 21:46
  So there's legislation going through Parliament here now.
• 21:49
  Now many rabbis are frightened to talk about it because there
• 21:54
  are people with those problems in in the congregations.
• 21:57
  Well, let me tell you that I actually am the president now in
• 22:01
  Australia of the Coalition of Jewish Values, CJV Rabbi Menken
• 22:07
  So, So what happens now is that somebody can come to me.
• 22:11
  In other words, the rabbis can come to me and I'll I will talk
• 22:15
  because I won't, I don't, I'm, I'm fearless.
• 22:17
  I was fearless when I was in the revenant because I didn't, I
• 22:19
  didn't, I wasn't reliant on the revenant.
• 22:22
  Panosa. So, so I will, I will talk out,
• 22:26
  you know, I'm retired anyway, so I will talk out of their behalf.
• 22:30
  But these are the things you, you, you're concerned about if
• 22:33
  you've got in a firmware of commerce, a job in the revenant,
• 22:37
  you're, you're concerned about your, your position because who
• 22:40
  knows what the kill is going to say, You know, if, if you come
• 22:44
  out with a, with a situation that, that they don't agree with
• 22:47
  or they don't like. And so I think every rabbi
• 22:50
  should be in a way, independent of what used to happen in
• 22:54
  Europe. You know, the in Germany, for
• 22:56
  example, the the revenant was, was a state appointment.
• 23:02
  You know which was, which is probably better.
• 23:04
  You're not controlled by it, by a killer.
• 23:06
  And by the way, by the way, we find in in European history for
• 23:10
  rabbis that they got fired all the time, if I'm not mistaken,
• 23:12
  the base. I leave you, you know, crime
• 23:14
  Brisker's father, his first appointment from that mistake
• 23:17
  and he was fired from he said what he thought that they fired
• 23:19
  him and he said OK, and he left. I mean, he was, you know, he
• 23:22
  fired the base Allevi, which is just a could you.
• 23:25
  It's a wild thing to think about, you know, but that's
• 23:27
  that's that's almost something that we should ask was like,
• 23:29
  yeah, we want to see rabbis get fired because if rabbi's getting
• 23:32
  fired, you know, if it's for the right reason, obviously we want
• 23:37
  to see rabbi sticking up for, for their beliefs, Right.
• 23:40
  But, but I want to talk about this, this, this legislation
• 23:42
  that you just said a moment ago, It's mind, it's mind boggling.
• 23:45
  So a person will have an issue, you know, with gender identity
• 23:48
  if they can't seek advice from a Rev that I, I mean, I think
• 23:52
  that's stupid, but OK, at least they could, they could see seek
• 23:55
  help from a professional, you know, a psychological
• 23:58
  professional psychologist or something, because you're
• 24:00
  obviously working through an internal issue.
• 24:02
  So the government's response is really to say, no, you're on
• 24:05
  your own, you got to work it out and you can't involve anyone
• 24:07
  else. Is that great?
• 24:08
  A. Stance, Yeah, correct.
• 24:10
  If it's how you feel, you, I mean, I mean today, today if a
• 24:15
  man says I feel like a woman, he's a woman.
• 24:17
  I mean, that's, that's the sugar world.
• 24:21
  It sounds like the sugar world. It sounds like a joke.
• 24:23
  It sounds like it sounds crazy. I don't understand it.
• 24:25
  I mean, I would have thought, had I heard this, had I heard
• 24:29
  this years ago, I would have thought what, what, what time of
• 24:32
  the world is this? It's a different.
• 24:35
  Idea You should. You should.
• 24:36
  You should think that you're the Prime Minister of Australia.
• 24:38
  Let's see what happens. Exactly.
• 24:44
  You can think of anything and you it.
• 24:47
  Unbelievable. Wow, wow, wow.
• 24:48
  That's why. It is unbelievable.
• 24:50
  It's absolutely. So since we're talking about the
• 24:53
  rabbit, OK, so so being the Rev of WA, so how do you manage
• 24:58
  Kashris? I don't even know if you had a
• 24:59
  show, Kate, that was even in town.
• 25:01
  What did you do with Mcvos? Like how did you manage that?
• 25:04
  OK, well, I'm no longer the I'm, I'm retired.
• 25:09
  I'm I'm I'm emeritus. Now for for a while.
• 25:11
  For for 30 years, firstly, we have a mikvah here, a very good
• 25:18
  mikvah. It was there already before I
• 25:20
  came. We had it hellaically upgraded
• 25:22
  when I came. In fact, Rav Wosner, it's the
• 25:28
  the son of the Basalavi especially to help us with the
• 25:34
  mikvah here because I used to know him from Sydney.
• 25:36
  He was in Sydney of the Adas and when I came here I knew that he,
• 25:40
  he was a bocky and Mcvoice and I brought him out here and we
• 25:43
  upgraded the mikvah, although there was a mikvah always here
• 25:45
  before. OK, that's, that's the mikvah.
• 25:48
  There's no problem with that. Kashras, Kashras.
• 25:52
  We had our own chihita. We had a schuchat here.
• 25:55
  So we had our own Chihita for some time.
• 25:58
  Then unfortunately what happened was there was a program on
• 26:04
  television which showed the slaughtering by the Islamic
• 26:09
  community and they were sending meat over to Indonesia and it
• 26:15
  was horrific. In other words, people saw this
• 26:19
  and the animal rights said this is horrific the way they were
• 26:23
  doing it and it was horrific. I mean ours, ours, as you know,
• 26:26
  is much, much cleaner, much better.
• 26:30
  So what happened was the abattoir here in Perth where
• 26:35
  both the halal and the kosher kosher was, was being done, the
• 26:41
  Shahita, they decided to cancel it all because it causes big
• 26:44
  protests here, etcetera. So, so not only cancelled the
• 26:47
  halal, they cancelled us as well.
• 26:49
  So now we go on our meat from Melbourne, the meat is imported
• 26:53
  from Melbourne. Now we, we do so most of our
• 26:57
  products actually, although we have some local products which
• 26:59
  we supervise, but most of the products come from Melbourne.
• 27:02
  Let me explain. When I came here that we started
• 27:05
  the Kushras authority, there was a Kushras authority, but I
• 27:09
  wanted to ensure that the revenant had nothing to do with
• 27:13
  the financial side of Kushras. I didn't want people saying that
• 27:19
  the rabbi's are only encouraging us to keep Kushras because
• 27:23
  they're making money from it. So what I did was and that that
• 27:29
  could have been said beforehand, OK.
• 27:31
  So when I came here, I said OK, any financial situation with
• 27:37
  kashrus will be dealt with, dealt with by Balabatim.
• 27:41
  So that Balabatim, any cashrus fees etcetera that has to be had
• 27:45
  to be dealt with. That's them.
• 27:47
  They'll deal with that. The rabbis will not touch money
• 27:50
  and so. Where did the money go?
• 27:51
  Meaning if they had fees or whatever it is and where did
• 27:55
  that money go? To, to shamrim the bash gear
• 28:00
  because by the way, we, we ourselves here in Perth did not
• 28:03
  charge any extra for, for the supervision, none at all.
• 28:08
  In other words, you know, the rabbis didn't say we're, we're,
• 28:12
  we're adding more money for the Hersha.
• 28:14
  No, no, in fact, I said I, I made a statement or I said if
• 28:19
  any rabbi, if you can point a finger at any rabbi on my
• 28:21
  cashless authority that takes 1 cent for kashrus, he's out.
• 28:26
  He's out. I wrote it here in the, in the,
• 28:28
  in the local Jewish newspaper, he's out.
• 28:30
  So, so I did not want kashrus associated with money, where it
• 28:36
  came to functions, et cetera, where we needed shamrim.
• 28:40
  They have to be paid. That's the job for the Shamrim.
• 28:42
  So the money, the money that that was collected for, for
• 28:46
  various functions, etcetera. You know, if there's, if there's
• 28:49
  a Hooper, there's a wedding, there's a mitzvah reception,
• 28:53
  etcetera, that that money would, would actually for the, the
• 28:57
  Schwimmer would be paid to the cashless authority, that's to
• 29:00
  the balabatim and they would pay the Scheimer.
• 29:03
  So we, we were independent of any financial situation.
• 29:07
  That's how it worked. Excellent.
• 29:08
  That's how it worked. Excellent.
• 29:10
  Is this to work that way now? I'm not involved in it now, so
• 29:15
  I, I'm hoping it still works like that.
• 29:17
  I, I'm pretty sure it does because I know that there's
• 29:19
  Balabatan still involved. So it still works like that,
• 29:23
  Baruch Hashem. And that's the best way of it
• 29:24
  working because believe me, people are very, very quick to
• 29:27
  say the rabbis are making the reason they want us to keep
• 29:30
  cautious because they're making money from this.
• 29:33
  Right, right. So I can imagine were there any,
• 29:35
  were there any big disasters in the, in the cautious area of
• 29:39
  life while while you were at the helm that you had to deal with?
• 29:43
  Well, I'll tell you that an interesting situation here in
• 29:47
  Australia, and that's throughout Australia.
• 29:50
  And I, I think Rahmosha Feinstein actually in Igus Moshe
• 29:53
  actually says this. See, the government insists on
• 29:58
  stunning an animal right now. The government itself wants the
• 30:03
  animal stunned before the shahita.
• 30:07
  Now that of course, as I saw it finished, you can't do that.
• 30:12
  But what happens is they do the Chihita and then immediately
• 30:17
  they allowed this immediately. It's done after the Chihita, but
• 30:21
  immediately which which really is acceptable ingress moisture
• 30:26
  actually allows this. But we had one Kush authority
• 30:30
  coming over here and I actually caused this Kush Authority to
• 30:33
  come here. Just there's an audit.
• 30:36
  I like, you know, we're talking about a reputable American
• 30:39
  conscious authority. And they were shocked to see, to
• 30:42
  see this, that we allowed the stunning immediately after the
• 30:45
  Chiquita, which happens throughout Melbourne, the ADAS
• 30:49
  in Melbourne, throughout Australia.
• 30:50
  It's been happening for years. That's how we do.
• 30:53
  So that was the only situation with and it's still, it's still
• 30:56
  that way. Was that was that was that your
• 30:57
  idea? Is that like?
• 31:00
  That way is that absolutely proof for that the only you said
• 31:04
  any with any problems. Yeah, there was one problem that
• 31:07
  I said that we here here in in Australia, throughout Australia,
• 31:13
  by the way, you know when when we do Chiquita, you have to stun
• 31:17
  the animal right afterwards. Right now we brought out I
• 31:21
  brought out an American authority, a reputable American
• 31:24
  authority just to order our Kushras actually, you know,
• 31:27
  because it's good to have somebody independent to come in
• 31:30
  to have a look to see. And and they were not impressed
• 31:33
  with that which caused the big furor here because they don't
• 31:36
  stun after the schreeter in America.
• 31:39
  But it's perfectly in order. It's perfectly mutter to do so.
• 31:42
  It might be a bidi Evan situation, but it's still
• 31:45
  cautious. You had to here because the
• 31:47
  government insisted otherwise we would have no shade here at all.
• 31:50
  So that's the really the only real problem that that I had
• 31:55
  here. You're you're talking about
• 31:56
  halachic problems. The only the only other problem
• 31:58
  is we don't have enough facilities here for cautious
• 32:01
  right. We don't have enough
• 32:02
  restaurants, etcetera. That is a problem.
• 32:04
  That is a problem. Right.
• 32:07
  OK, well, how about, how about the schooling system there?
• 32:09
  You know, was was the school active when when you started
• 32:13
  your job there? How has it progressed?
• 32:15
  Is it getting bigger? Yeah, well, it's actually the
• 32:19
  school when I came, was actually thriving.
• 32:22
  We have a school, Carmel School, actually all my grandchildren
• 32:25
  went there and my children went there as well.
• 32:27
  My grandchildren also go go there.
• 32:29
  My grandfather who live in Perth go there.
• 32:31
  It's a good school, it's a good school and there's Kinnock there
• 32:34
  and good teachers. Although I think the numbers are
• 32:37
  now dwindling. The reason the numbers are now
• 32:39
  dwindling is because when I came here and I came 1988, I came to
• 32:46
  Perth, the there was a Big South African influx because the
• 32:52
  apartheid situation there, etcetera.
• 32:54
  So Perth grew exponentially exponential.
• 32:59
  In fact it was one, it was one per capita, it was one of the
• 33:02
  fastest growing Jewish communities in the world at that
• 33:04
  stage because Perth itself only had about 3000 to start off with
• 33:08
  even less and then suddenly it goes up to about about 8000.
• 33:14
  So it grew. So the facilities had to be had
• 33:16
  to grow as well. So what happened was the the
• 33:22
  school started to flourish and they built new buildings,
• 33:24
  etcetera, etcetera. Now at immigration from South
• 33:30
  Africa is virtually non existent now and many of those S Africans
• 33:35
  who came over here, the young people have gone to Melbourne
• 33:37
  and Sydney to find Shidduchim, got married over there and
• 33:41
  stayed in Melbourne and Sydney. So there is a decrease in the
• 33:47
  students of Kabul School, although the school is a good
• 33:50
  school. It's Coed by the way it's Coed.
• 33:53
  But they do, you know, they, they, they do actually care
• 33:57
  about boundaries there with that respect.
• 34:00
  So, and the hypocrisy I said is good, is very good.
• 34:03
  And so is the secular study. So that there are some people
• 34:06
  who, who are not so from who want to go there because it's,
• 34:09
  it's a good standard. It's a good standard.
• 34:11
  But what, what I like about it is that the fact is that they
• 34:15
  learn davening there, They learn, they, they, they learn
• 34:19
  it's a Torah. They learn many things.
• 34:22
  So, Brooke Hashem, it does a good job, very good job
• 34:24
  actually. If young people are moving out,
• 34:28
  as are you saying, is this the end of the community going down
• 34:31
  50 years down the road? Because if if people are leaving
• 34:33
  the community and not rejuvenating it with young
• 34:35
  blood. No, and I'll tell you why,
• 34:38
  because there are a number of people coming back from the
• 34:43
  Eastern states. We call this the West.
• 34:45
  That's the East. The reason for that is because
• 34:49
  things are far cheaper here get homes, for example, very nice
• 34:53
  homes here much cheaper than you do in Sydney and Melbourne.
• 34:58
  So a lot of young people and really the price of homes and
• 35:04
  even rents this great is shocking, shocking very high.
• 35:07
  So young people are looking at moving W here to be able to have
• 35:12
  a decent standard of living. So that's that's why I don't
• 35:15
  there are people moving over from the East so.
• 35:19
  As someone, as someone with a lot of, as someone with a lot of
• 35:23
  experience in leading your kihilo in the community in
• 35:26
  general, how did you manage interfaith cooperation?
• 35:30
  So you mentioned before the Archbishop or I don't know if
• 35:33
  you worked with any moms. And then as an offshoot of that,
• 35:36
  how do you manage when it gets a little sticky when you have
• 35:38
  intermarriage, you know, how did you manage that particular issue
• 35:43
  as your time in office? Firstly, regarding interfaith,
• 35:47
  let me say to you that I actually did not go to a Jewish
• 35:50
  day school in Sydney. I went to Cindy Grammar School,
• 35:54
  which is a very sort of posh school.
• 35:56
  Cindy Grammar School I mixed which was which was non
• 35:59
  nominational by the way. There was no associated with no
• 36:02
  particular religion, but I had friends from all walks of life,
• 36:08
  all religious persuasions. OK.
• 36:12
  I, they used to call me the rabbi there because, because,
• 36:16
  because I took all the Jewish holidays off and when it came to
• 36:20
  the cadets and when it came to the cadets, you know, we had, we
• 36:25
  had to be in the cadets, which was like, you know, an army type
• 36:29
  situation there. I What do you mean?
• 36:32
  What do you mean cadets? Cadets, it's like junior Army
• 36:38
  Corps. You had to be in the junior Army
• 36:41
  Corps in terms of. Everyone in the school.
• 36:45
  Not everyone, it was years, I think years, 4:00 and 5:00,
• 36:49
  fourth year and 5th year in high school, which when you're about
• 36:53
  16151617. So that is they used to be Kemps
• 37:01
  and I, I used to have these, these little tins of kosher food
• 37:06
  when everybody else had that. So I was the rabbi because I had
• 37:09
  the tins of food. OK anyways, so so anyways so so.
• 37:23
  Well, they were clearly clairvoyant.
• 37:25
  They must have been very holy people from other faiths.
• 37:30
  And when we have the, the reunions, you know, I've had, I
• 37:33
  went to the 50 year year reunion and I went to, I said to them,
• 37:37
  see, I am replying. They used to say it quite
• 37:41
  mockingly about being a rabbi anyway, So, but let me tell you,
• 37:46
  tell you Ravnorfin, the that actually was one of the main
• 37:51
  reasons that I came to Perth because I had that, that
• 37:58
  experience. And I'll tell you why.
• 38:01
  I was the rabbi of Maroubra Synagogue, which a lovely
• 38:05
  Keeler, lovely Keeler 15 years I was there and it, it grew.
• 38:11
  We actually started a school there and my grandparents gave
• 38:14
  the money to start the school. It's a fantastic some Mount
• 38:16
  Sinai college. We started there at, at
• 38:19
  Maroubra. And then about a year after the
• 38:22
  school was started, I left because somebody came to Sydney
• 38:29
  through a bar mitzvah at Maroubra from Perth and said we
• 38:32
  need a rabbi like you in Perth. And I said, what's Perth?
• 38:36
  I didn't know what what was in Perth anyway.
• 38:40
  So, so, so he said, well, I want, I'd like to show it to you
• 38:44
  looking in the background how I gave got here.
• 38:46
  I'd like to show it to you. Interesting.
• 38:49
  So, so come, come over, I said, Well, I'm not coming over to
• 38:54
  abandon my keela here. If you want to come, if you want
• 38:57
  me to come over as a scholar in residence for a week, I'll come
• 39:00
  over. And I'm too happy to share Torah
• 39:03
  with with Jews in the West. I'm really too happy to share it
• 39:07
  to her. That's what I said to him.
• 39:09
  And what happened was they said, oh, yes, OK, we're arranging for
• 39:13
  you to give a drosher on the Shabbos.
• 39:15
  So in other words, I'm over for a week to give one brochure on
• 39:18
  the Shabbos. Wow.
• 39:20
  Hey, yeah, the rest of the time is vacation.
• 39:23
  I said, I said I'm I'm not going to come to Perth to give one
• 39:28
  brochure on the Shabbos. You know what a a fuchsia to
• 39:31
  give a fuchsia or him, A fuchia or him.
• 39:33
  And I arranged a program for them for assuring.
• 39:37
  So I, I came over here anyway. I did.
• 39:41
  I noticed. And by the way, my predecessor,
• 39:45
  Rabbi Coleman Zagat Salik Levroko, who passed away only
• 39:50
  six months ago, seven months ago, at the age of 106 six, he
• 39:57
  was at my bar mitzvah in Sydney. By the way, Rabbi Coleman.
• 40:00
  Interestingly enough, Rabbi Coleman said to me when I came
• 40:03
  over, he said, you know, David, he said here you have to
• 40:06
  represent the community to the wider community.
• 40:09
  This is the main shul here and you represent Orthodox Judaism
• 40:13
  to the rest of the of the community here.
• 40:19
  That appealed to me. That appealed to me because here
• 40:22
  I was at Sydney Grammar School where I represented who I was to
• 40:26
  the, to all the boys there. It was a boys school to all the
• 40:30
  boys I represented who I was proudly, proudly, and sometimes
• 40:34
  even, you know, got quite aggressive with some of them
• 40:37
  with anti-Semitic and funny remarks.
• 40:40
  So that appealed to me. And that's really one of the
• 40:43
  main reasons why I actually left Maroubra to come here, because I
• 40:48
  represented the, the, the community in the, in the, in the
• 40:54
  wider, wider community. And Baruch Hashem, it went very
• 41:00
  well because Rabbi Coleman had done that the previous rabbis.
• 41:05
  And by the way, in 130 years, 135 years of this scalar here,
• 41:11
  and there's a few shuls, there's a bad, there's a Mizrahi.
• 41:14
  This is sort of the main one in 135 years, 5 rabbis in 135
• 41:20
  years. And all of those rabbis,
• 41:22
  particularly the first one, Rabbi Freeman represented the
• 41:25
  community really with distinction to the wider
• 41:28
  community. So in Perth, we're actually the
• 41:31
  Jewish community is respected because of that by particularly
• 41:35
  the Christian community. They are respected.
• 41:38
  I could I've these funny stories.
• 41:39
  I won't go now because it'll take too long.
• 41:41
  But, but but that that is, that is the situation.
• 41:44
  So there is a bond and of friendship between and it wasn't
• 41:49
  just started by me, it was actually started by my
• 41:51
  predecessors. So that that continues and I've
• 41:55
  continued that because something I like doing and I think it's
• 41:58
  important for the community, particularly today, the
• 42:03
  judeo-christian values, which Australia is based on, we talk,
• 42:08
  we talk about judeo-christian values.
• 42:09
  You're really talking about Judeo values because that's what
• 42:12
  it is. It's based based on our Torah.
• 42:15
  It's all based on our Torah, OK, It's 100%.
• 42:18
  So those values are being unfortunately being undermined.
• 42:23
  And the Christian clergy here know that that's happening as
• 42:27
  well. And it's not just being
• 42:28
  undermined by woke agendas. It's being undermined by Islamic
• 42:34
  extremists who want to take over here as well.
• 42:37
  So right, it's in a way, it's united us more.
• 42:41
  We've got a common, a common situation where, where we're
• 42:44
  going to stick up for our values.
• 42:46
  And that, that that really has has made us closer, brought us
• 42:49
  all closer. How does how does that
• 42:51
  practically look that interfaith cooperation, if you could give
• 42:54
  an example and two, that's what the Christian community, but has
• 42:57
  there been any interfaith work with the Islamic community?
• 43:01
  Oh, interesting, You asked that. OK, very interesting.
• 43:05
  I don't know whether you have whether you know about this.
• 43:06
  There is a Islamic group called Ahmadiyya Ahmadiyya, they are
• 43:13
  outcasts. There is Islam, totally Islamic,
• 43:17
  but they're outcasts from the that's a HMADIY.
• 43:21
  They are outcasts from the mainstream of the Islamic
• 43:26
  community because some belief they have, which I think they
• 43:29
  believe somebody else's mashiach.
• 43:31
  I don't know what it is, but who knows.
• 43:37
  I mean, we have we have our situations like that as well.
• 43:42
  I won't go into that. So, so therefore they are
• 43:48
  outcasts and as a result, as a result, and by the way, their
• 43:53
  belief is this Ahmadiya Islamic group, their, their belief is
• 43:57
  you don't fight with the sword, you fight with the pen.
• 44:01
  In other words, at least you debate.
• 44:04
  That's something, yeah. That is their that is their
• 44:06
  motto. Fight with the pen, not the
• 44:10
  sword. So they, they, they actually,
• 44:12
  they invite me to their, to their various.
• 44:14
  They've got a huge mosque, but I don't got the mosque, but but
• 44:17
  there, there's, there's a huge hall they have where they're,
• 44:20
  they're celebrating Australia Day in a few weeks time.
• 44:23
  It's Australia Day and they've invited me to talk.
• 44:25
  They invited me to a few occasions to talk at these
• 44:29
  occasions and they and they get cash a whole kosher meal in for
• 44:32
  me, you know, certainly from, from, from the restaurant.
• 44:37
  So so I must say. Still eating from the tin.
• 44:41
  No, no tins. I just spoiled a couple of
• 44:44
  times. But I've spoiled a few times.
• 44:46
  But but but not from the tin. Not from the tin.
• 44:50
  So, and and they, they also call me Rabbi, but not because of the
• 44:54
  tin. There you go.
• 44:56
  So I'm very friendly with them and I have been friendly with,
• 45:00
  well, I've tried to be friendly when I first came with some of
• 45:03
  the Islamic clergy here, but unfortunately, for some reason
• 45:08
  it didn't last there. There is one particular reason
• 45:12
  it didn't last. The one I really became friendly
• 45:14
  with is now in jail. Won't go into it.
• 45:18
  That'll do it. But but that that's that's the
• 45:23
  situation. So I did.
• 45:25
  I did try to actually have. What?
• 45:28
  Why did that? Why did that fall apart, do you
• 45:30
  think? Just hatred of you?
• 45:32
  Hatred of your people. I think what was going on there
• 45:35
  is this royal, it was actually since firstly, I think it was
• 45:39
  since one of the intifadas and etcetera.
• 45:41
  And, and I think that that that was the situation.
• 45:44
  They they felt uncomfortable being with me and the Jewish
• 45:48
  community. OK, well what about the
• 45:51
  Christian interfaith? So I mean, do you do events
• 45:54
  together? Is there like talks?
• 45:55
  What does that cooperation look like?
• 45:57
  Well, we have meetings to discuss.
• 46:00
  We have meetings to discuss the topics of interest where we can,
• 46:04
  you know, situations where where the government may be making
• 46:08
  sort of legislation that we don't agree with because they're
• 46:11
  against our values. So we discuss that together.
• 46:14
  We get around the table and we we discuss we have for example,
• 46:19
  we had a morning tea recently where we thanked the clergy of
• 46:25
  the of the various Christian denominations for their support
• 46:28
  against anti-Semitism over the last few months they've been
• 46:31
  really very strong. We're, we're having, by the way,
• 46:34
  an interesting a, a mock sider, a mock sider about a month
• 46:40
  before Pesach and we're. Good one anyway, we're we're
• 46:57
  we're inviting them to explain. Well, yeah, we can we explain
• 47:02
  about freedom and the whole idea of freedom and and and what's
• 47:06
  what a Seder is a Seder is just explain to to them a bit about,
• 47:10
  you know, what we stand for and what our our values are as Jews.
• 47:15
  So things like that. We, we're arranging and we have,
• 47:17
  by the way, because I'm, I'm actually the director of
• 47:22
  interfaith, honorary director of interfaith for the Jewish Jewish
• 47:25
  Community Council of WA. There's a, that's a lay body
• 47:29
  which as soon as I stepped down for the revenant, I joined that.
• 47:32
  I was vice president for a while, but now I'm in charge of
• 47:35
  interfaith. So I've invited various clergy
• 47:39
  from other denominations to come and address us at the meetings
• 47:42
  to tell us about their faith and their connection to what their
• 47:47
  thoughts are of the Jewish community and and their
• 47:49
  connection with the Jewish community.
• 47:51
  So we keep these situations where we want to show friendship
• 47:55
  and a bit of understanding of each other.
• 47:57
  You mentioned intermarriage. Well, we don't encourage
• 48:00
  intermarriage between these churches and all, I can assure
• 48:04
  you so so I don't, I don't know what's 1 got to do with the
• 48:12
  other. It doesn't actually cause the
• 48:14
  very fact that we're friendly with the clergy.
• 48:16
  There does not. Well, you know what?
• 48:17
  So, so here let's let's make a little bit of a bridge for a
• 48:20
  second. So, so on what you just said.
• 48:22
  So bringing people in to discuss their faith and show
• 48:25
  commonalities. So has that ever in your
• 48:27
  experience devolved into polemic, you know, debates
• 48:31
  between you and other another clergy and whether it has or
• 48:34
  hasn't, you know, are you at all worried about the polemic
• 48:37
  implications that it has in the Jewish community?
• 48:41
  Not really, because there's an understanding here.
• 48:45
  They've got their religion. I respect them for their
• 48:47
  religion. They respect us for the for,
• 48:49
  for, for our religion. And near the twain shall meet.
• 48:52
  They've got their religion. I respect them.
• 48:54
  They're they're they're non Jews.
• 48:56
  They've got chef of Mistress Venoya.
• 48:58
  They should keep those. We have ours.
• 49:01
  And I explained that quite openly to them.
• 49:03
  You know, I explained it quite openly to them.
• 49:05
  And there's no embarrassment. I believe in respect because
• 49:10
  just like us, they've got Salim al Hakim.
• 49:13
  We're all human beings, but their ways are very different to
• 49:17
  ours and and we respect those boundaries.
• 49:19
  That's it. And I've never had a problem
• 49:21
  with it. No, that's great.
• 49:24
  If there's respect like that both ways, then then yeah.
• 49:27
  I mean, I could. I mean, there's an organization
• 49:29
  in America. It might be in the rest of the
• 49:30
  world too, but the Jews for Jesus.
• 49:32
  So you know you have. People that now we we don't
• 49:35
  tolerate them by the we don't tolerate.
• 49:37
  Them OK OK so no so so I'm meaning I could have
• 49:39
  theoretically understood that there would be someone that you
• 49:42
  would invite in good faith and they would come and and instead
• 49:45
  try to to push their religious agenda amongst your flock.
• 49:48
  But it sounds like you're saying that there's respect and that
• 49:50
  doesn't happen. So that's.
• 49:51
  That's no, no, if it was a Jews for Jesus and there are Jews for
• 49:54
  Jesus here, we we have nothing to do with them.
• 49:58
  If they come into our shoes, as sometimes they have, we make
• 50:02
  sure that they they're out. They leave.
• 50:05
  They're out. They're out.
• 50:06
  Those we don't tolerate because they are imposing what their
• 50:10
  beliefs on us that we don't tolerate that that's no respect.
• 50:14
  That's no respect, no respect for us.
• 50:17
  And we definitely don't have respect for them for doing that.
• 50:21
  Right, right, absolutely. OK, so then how about again in
• 50:24
  terms of intermarriage, of course we don't encourage them.
• 50:27
  But as as someone who is trying to promote peace and cooperation
• 50:31
  between communities, how do you maybe have advice for some up
• 50:35
  and coming the bottom? How do you manage that in a way
• 50:38
  that isn't distasteful and encourages strife?
• 50:43
  Well, you know, I mean there is a simulation here in Perth.
• 50:48
  There is, you know, you have situations where.
• 50:51
  It's global. Assimilation is global.
• 50:54
  Absolutely, absolutely. And particularly in Perth
• 50:57
  because, you know, it's, it's not a big community and you've
• 51:01
  got people going out into there's, yeah, there's doctors
• 51:05
  going out into the, into the, into the medical sphere and
• 51:08
  nurses and whatever have you. But it's, it's happened here.
• 51:11
  You know, although it might just say it's coming less.
• 51:14
  I must say it's coming less. I'll give you an example.
• 51:21
  And, and I, I, I actually took this, I've gotten who I took it
• 51:24
  from. Actually somebody came in to me
• 51:27
  with some not involved in the same or when I was in the
• 51:30
  ravelet, a person came into the said and said they intend they
• 51:33
  would like to marry this girl non Jewish.
• 51:36
  And I said and I and I read this somewhere and I got took the
• 51:40
  idea. So I took them into the shul and
• 51:44
  I said take the Toyra and trample on it because that's
• 51:49
  what you're doing. Take the Toyra and trample on
• 51:52
  it. And I started crying.
• 51:56
  I started crying. I'm starting to cry now.
• 51:59
  Actually, they actually started to, they started crying because
• 52:03
  that's what you're doing. You've got to be very strong on
• 52:06
  this. There was a case where I come,
• 52:11
  there was a, a person who's who comes before me, a Jewish young
• 52:16
  man. He brings, he brings a non
• 52:18
  Jewish girl and say, look, we I'd like her to convert.
• 52:22
  So I said to her, why does he want want you to convert?
• 52:27
  So, so he said to me, all because his parents want us to
• 52:31
  have a Jewish wedding. So, so I, so I said, I said to
• 52:35
  her in front of him, I said, in other words, he wants you to
• 52:40
  convert for him. And I said, I said, doesn't do
• 52:44
  it right in front of I said, I mean, in other words, he's
• 52:49
  forcing you to change your beliefs for him.
• 52:53
  Is that is that a good relationship?
• 52:56
  Why aren't you forcing him to change his police for you?
• 52:59
  That's that's not what I said. That's true, isn't it?
• 53:06
  He, he, he fixed her. So I said, why don't you force
• 53:10
  him to change his police for you?
• 53:12
  What? What was the postgrad to that
• 53:15
  story? Excellent.
• 53:16
  That was it. That was it, that was it, That
• 53:19
  was it, that was it. So you got to be, you know, you
• 53:23
  got to use of ingenuity and you've got to show that it
• 53:28
  doesn't work. It doesn't work.
• 53:30
  Can I just say a very interesting, I'll tell you a
• 53:34
  very interesting story. We're probably going overtime
• 53:37
  here, but I'm enjoying talking that's.
• 53:39
  Unfortunately, got to wrap up, yeah.
• 53:41
  Oh man, too, I'm. Very much enjoying it.
• 53:43
  I'm very much enjoying it, I must say.
• 53:46
  We must have a talk one day apart from the When I come here,
• 53:50
  it's destroyed. We should get together.
• 53:52
  Absolutely we will. Absolutely.
• 53:54
  I'd love that. I'll tell you an interesting
• 53:56
  story. There was once a situation here
• 54:00
  where somebody phones up an Islamic person, phones up the
• 54:06
  shul, this is about 15 years ago, and says and says to the
• 54:12
  secretary, I want to speak to the rabbi, my name is Mohammed
• 54:20
  something. I've got his what his name was,
• 54:21
  but Mohammed somebody so she said this is a a synagogue.
• 54:25
  It's not not the mosque. They said no, I must speak to
• 54:30
  the Rabbi. He he said, I my wife, the
• 54:35
  reason my wife has has a big problem.
• 54:40
  Something there's something wrong with her.
• 54:44
  She she won't enter the mosque and she does, she refuses.
• 54:48
  She runs out of the mosque. Isn't this so, so, so I said,
• 54:55
  OK, OK, she wants to see me. I could tell them to both come
• 55:00
  and see me. OK, so of course, get security
• 55:04
  there. She comes in with a big burka,
• 55:07
  big burka. He, he comes, he comes his dress
• 55:09
  in his, his lavik outfit. Come to the front of the shul.
• 55:13
  I have the security check, check them out before they come in.
• 55:17
  So I say, so what's the problem? What's the problem?
• 55:22
  So she so he says to me, my wife, she she's not talking,
• 55:27
  she's just covered up there. My wife, she, she runs out of
• 55:32
  the mosque and she doesn't want to come to the mosque with me.
• 55:37
  Then listen to this. We had the the hater going just
• 55:41
  nearby right where I was talking to them.
• 55:44
  There was a hater going on there and I was saying the Shema.
• 55:49
  So after this she, she actually starts crying.
• 55:57
  I heard, I heard a weeping. I said, I said to this Muhammad,
• 56:07
  I said, because he said she was possessed by by some evil
• 56:10
  spirit. I said she's not possessed by an
• 56:14
  evil spirit. What she's got is the Jewish
• 56:18
  neshama. She wasn't Muslim before, was
• 56:22
  she said no, I'm starting to cry myself now.
• 56:26
  She's got the Jewishness Shabba. She's hearing that shamar, and
• 56:30
  it's reminding her of what she was taught and that's she she
• 56:37
  doesn't want to go to your mosque.
• 56:39
  So he said what? What am I to do?
• 56:41
  What am I to do? I said, that's for you to work
• 56:44
  out. But she is Jewish.
• 56:48
  She is Jewish, sure enough. It goes deep.
• 56:52
  That's it. I very deep, very deep.
• 56:55
  It just shows you. It's always there.
• 56:57
  The the piddly Yid, no matter what happens, is always there,
• 57:02
  never goes. So you know, you can try to
• 57:05
  assimilate as much as you like. You'll never lose it, Hashem,
• 57:08
  you'll never lose it. Sorry, I get very emotional.
• 57:13
  No, I mean it's. It's.
• 57:14
  It's hard not to because usually with values, especially in this
• 57:19
  day and age, I feel like we see values being lost left and
• 57:21
  right, judeo-christian beliefs being lost left and right, and
• 57:25
  the world scrambles to try to get them back.
• 57:27
  But when it comes to a Jew, you can RIP them from their home,
• 57:30
  you can RIP them from their tradition, but they just can't
• 57:33
  run away. They can't run away.
• 57:35
  It's there, It's always there, always there, always there,
• 57:38
  Baruch Hashem. You know, someone asked me once
• 57:43
  years ago about their daughter. So their daughter lives in the
• 57:46
  middle of nowhere in America. You know, she grew up with some
• 57:48
  someone so from Kite, but she moved in the middle of nowhere
• 57:52
  and she was living with actually a Palestinian that moved to the
• 57:57
  States. So, you know, he came to me and
• 57:59
  he said that's it, you know, you know, because we tried to work
• 58:02
  before it to try to encourage that not to happen.
• 58:04
  He says that's it. We got to give up.
• 58:06
  There's nothing. There's no more hope.
• 58:07
  There's nothing that has to do. I said, I said, listen, just
• 58:11
  like the, you know, the Gemara says of the vehicle.
• 58:13
  And I said, even if the, the swords on your neck, you keep
• 58:16
  happening because there's something, there's something
• 58:18
  there. He's like, but what?
• 58:19
  Come on. OK, but passed off and what am
• 58:21
  I, what are we supposed to do? He's they're living together,
• 58:23
  they're eating together, doing everything together.
• 58:25
  I mean, what influence? I said, believe in God and
• 58:28
  believe in her. So he had a really hard time
• 58:31
  accepting this. Four months later, I happened to
• 58:34
  see him and they said, OK, so how's your, you know, what
• 58:37
  happened? He said, this is also the hard
• 58:40
  part about being rough. You know, everyone calls you to
• 58:42
  tell you what the issue is, calls you and tells you things
• 58:44
  work out. He said.
• 58:45
  He said, you know, she she came to her senses and she left him
• 58:50
  and she found it after the fact that he had a violent past, you
• 58:52
  know, like domestic issues. So I'm thinking to myself, I was
• 58:55
  like, what was the thing that saved her?
• 58:57
  No, she didn't. It's not that she that she saw
• 59:00
  something that was particularly strange.
• 59:02
  She just felt, you know, with her probably blue hair and
• 59:05
  tattoo, right? This is this is wrong.
• 59:08
  This is not right for me. So it's not just that the
• 59:10
  Pintilla Yid that's deep inside of you of that that can
• 59:12
  reconnect you with the extra Skype, but it can save your
• 59:14
  life. It really, it really can it.
• 59:16
  Could do, absolutely. It is.
• 59:19
  It's an amazing thing, Rabbi France.
• 59:20
  There's there's one crime here, and that crime is, is a crime of
• 59:23
  time. This was too short.
• 59:26
  There's not enough time to discuss everything we're going
• 59:29
  to. Have so much I could tell.
• 59:30
  You we definitely needed me please so much.
• 59:32
  I want to hear OK, but but but you know what meets sashem?
• 59:35
  Well, we'll, we'll speak again and I want to thank you so much
• 59:38
  again for coming on and sharing. Well, I'm on.
• 59:40
  I'm on. Wonderful, passionate stuff.
• 59:42
  Well, the honor. The honor is mostly ours, I
• 59:44
  assure you. The honor is well, We'll share
• 59:47
  the honor together. Very well.
• 59:49
  I'm. Afraid until next time.
• 59:51
  Thank you so much. Good Donnie.
• 59:53
  Why don't scientists trust Adams?
• 59:55
  Because they make up everything. What do you call belt made of
• 59:58
  watches? A waste of time.
• 1:00:02
  What do you call a sleeping dinosaur?
• 1:00:04
  A dinosaur. Why did the scarecrow win an
• 1:00:09
  award? Because he was outstanding in
• 1:00:11
  his field. Did you hear about the two
• 1:00:15
  people who stole a calendar? They each got six months.
• 1:00:18
  That's a good one. I like that one.
• 1:00:19
  What's the best thing about Switzerland?
• 1:00:21
  I don't know. But the flag is a big plus.
• 1:00:23
  That's also good. This one.
• 1:00:25
  You know, I have a lot of jokes about unemployed people, but
• 1:00:28
  none of them work. Why don't Scotland fight each
• 1:00:31
  other? They don't have the guts.
• 1:00:33
  OK, let's see. Well, these jokes are too long.
• 1:00:37
  Why did Beethoven get rid of his chickens?
• 1:00:39
  All they said was Bach, Bach, Bach.
• 1:00:40
  Not Bach, Bach, Bach, Bach, Bach.
• 1:00:42
  Because I'm thinking about the term base USIF, obviously.
• 1:00:47
  What did 20 do when it was hungry?
• 1:00:49
  28? OK, hopefully this works and
• 1:00:52
  he'll be back soon. Hopefully.
• 1:00:53
  You're laughing now.